[4] There are remains of Inuit dwellings in Sabine Island that were first reported by Carl Koldewey during the Second German North Polar Expedition 1869–70.

[5] Sabine had been aboard the Clavering 1823 Arctic expedition, the only one to encounter living Inuit in Northeast Greenland.

The Second German North Polar Expedition built a house at Germaniahafen on the south side.

From August 1942 to June 1943, the German meteorological expedition Unternehmen Holzauge under the command of Captain Hermann Ritter, with headquarters in Hansa Bay on the eastern side of the island, operated successfully on Sabine.

In June, the surviving members of the German team were evacuated to Norway by air from a Dornier Do 18 seaplane launched from ship Schwabenland.